New Year’s Energy Talks in Hamburg

01.02.2019

On 31/01/2019, the law firm Becker Büttner Held (BBH) held its New Year’s Energy Talks (“Energiewirtschaftlicher Jahresauftakt”) 2019 in Hamburg. Together with approx. 70 guests from the world of politics, business and science, BBH lawyers discussed the challenges facing the energy sector this year.

After BBH partner Prof. Christian Held had welcomed the guests and outlined the topics of the evening, Prof. Dr. Friedbert Pflüger, Professor for International Relations at King’s College London, spoke about the energy transition 2019: Katowice and the coal phase-out – what to do now? Dr. Felix Matthes, Research Coordinator for Energy & Climate policy at Öko-Institut, also had a lot to contribute to the topic of the coal phase-out. Being a member of the Coal Phase-out Commission, Dr. Matthes was able to provide the attendees with first-hand information about the final report compiled by the Commission.

Kurt-Christoph von Knobelsdorff, Deputy State Secretary in the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of Economic Affairs, Transport, Employment, Technology and Tourism, focused particularly on the federal states in Northern Germany. At the Hamburg event, he revealed the practical energy policy decisions to be taken in 2019.

The evening ended with an interactive panel discussion moderated by BBH partner Jan-Hendrik vom Wege. Jörg Kuhbier, former Senator and BBH partner of counsel, Dr. Frank Kästner, Director of Stadtwerke Wolfsburg AG, Ove Petersen, Managing Director of GP JOULE GmbH and Florian Berghausen, Managing Director of DZ-4 GmbH, discussed the opportunities presented by the energy transition – and how to best use them.

These were the New Year’s Energy Talks 2019, which also marked the 6th anniversary of BBH Hamburg: In January 2013, BBH merged with the law firm Kuhbier Rechtsanwälte and established an office in Hamburg. Today, a 20-strong staff work in the far north of Germany together with BBH partners Stefan Wollschläger, Dr. Ursula Prall and Jan-Hendrik vom Wege.